HIPAA Chapter 8 Summary

(Dietrich, 2015), discussed that new regulations have caused many Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) to become subject to patient health care data security rules under HIPAA. When providing consulting services to a healthcare organization or assisting with revenue cycle, CPAs should try to limit their liability by minimizing exposure to health care data and establish an engagement letter to ensure the healthcare organization is liable if patient health care data is unnecessarily provided to the CPA. Under HIPAA, electronic information must be protected during electronic exchange, technically protected against unauthorized access, and physically protected against unauthorized access

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a set of national standards created for the protection of health information; it is also known as a “Privacy Rule”. This rule was employed in 1996 by the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to address the use and disclosure of an individual’s health information as well as the standards for the individual’s privacy rights to understand and control the manner in which their information is used.

The main goal of HIPAA is to protect unauthorized access and misuse of confidential health information. It allows for the safe storage of any health facts used, collected, transmitted or maintained by any health organization. It states that all health information about a particular client is completely confidential, regardless of what the format is and whether it is transmitted, maintained or collected. Protected information is that health information that already identifies the patient or could be used in order to identify the patient; it also relates to any of the patient’s past, present or future health conditions, any treatment the patient receives and any payment the patient makes toward their care.

All healthcare providers, health organizations, and government health plans that use, store, maintain, or transmit patient health care information are required to comply with the privacy regulations of the HIPAA

HIPAA is governed by 2 entities, the Privacy Rule and the Security Rule. These two rules dictates to outline what the Health and Human Services (HHS) requires to handle Protected Health Information (PHI) in all forms. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) enforces HIPAA and can leverage

What the HIPAA law states. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a law that was enacted in 1996 establishing safeguards and rules to protect patients demographics and medical records. These rules limit the circumstances of how health records are used or obtained without the patient's authorization. HIPAA has set national standards that require these safeguards to maintain the attainability of health records and keeping them classified. This rule applies to any institutional and noninstitutional providers and only a written authorization by the patient will allow any use of their health records be disclosed.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, HIPAA was passed by Congress in 1996 to provide the ability to transfer and continue health insurance coverage for workers as well as their families after changing or losing their jobs. As a result, new patients are required to fill HIPAA compliant forms while existing patients should update their information on a regular basis. Documenting and maintaining the HIPAA forms properly ensures that healthcare providers focus more on other aspects of their practice.

What is HIPAA Compliance? HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This act was created in 1996 by congress and signed by president Bill Clinton. It inspires systematization of medical data. HIPAA contains two rules which are privacy and security. HIPAA Security Rule conducts collections,transmittal, IT systems,and storage of electronic patient records. While HIPAA privacy rule controls paper records, HIPAA keeps medical information confidential and protects patient’s information from being put on social media or given to unknown people. Every medical company has devised it’s own standard for interpreting the HIPAA regulations.

I do think that HIPAA is more compliant in regards to electronic records because from its beginning concept it was known that health data was going digital. I think because of that knowledge it has been a main focus in its development through the years. Yes, I do believe that today HIPAA does protect my personal and healthcare records more so than 5 years ago because of the January 2013 HIPAA modifications. As stated in the article, these modifications implemented changes that increased the HIPAA sanctions and enforcements to include the business associates and subcontractors of the healthcare organizations. This is important because it stated that 20% of all breaches are caused by business associates. This means that they are now held to the

HIPAA is the Health insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It became law in 1996. The original intent was to help employees change jobs and keep their health insurance by making their coverage portable. Later, on April 14, 2003 lawmakers broadened the law to include the Privacy Rule. Protected Health Information(PHI) is a HIPAA term, it includes all medical information of an individual. All patients health information is protected no matter what form it is in. PHI can be controlled in many forms such as backup disk or tapes, insurance statements, lab reports, prescription forms, patient form, email, etc. Five steps to comply with the Privacy Rule are:

The Department of Health and Human Services, HHS, issued the Privacy Rule to HIPAA to address the disclosure and use of a person’s health information. A branch within HHS called the Office of Civil Rights, OCR, is responsible for enforcing and implementing the privacy rule. The Privacy Rule’s main goal is to assure health information is properly protected, while allowing information to be provided and give out high quality health care. This rule is designed to be comprehensive and flexible in order to cover uses and

The new rules allow patients to participate with all aspect of their healthcare decisions. It focuses on patient’s involvement, decisions, continuous healing and patient control. The new rules are design to meet the patient’s needs. Throughout the years, physicians had more of a paternalistic view with competent patient’s healthcare choices. Even though, the physicians optimal goals is to practice non-maleficence and beneficence care, their knowledge regarding patient’s illness and care paternalistically diminish patient’s autonomy and involvement. The new rules reinforce those principles; it changes patient’s involvement, choices and preferences. It increases transparency, predict patient’s needs, continuity of care among physicians, institute evidence-based decisions and health records access.

The center should identify, classify, and protect sensitive information associated with patients. The electronic security should be done by the standards propose by HIPAA. If there were any changes the center is responsible for change control and configuration management for development, deployment, modifying, replacing, or removal of critical software. Change control associated with systems used in the access control and monitoring of the Physical Security should be the responsibility of one person. It is important to the center that appropriate access controls and processes are developed to ensure proper protection within electronic security perimeters. Technical and procedural mechanisms should be used to control electronic access at all electronic access points.

HIPAA is an act which is used to protect patient’s information which leads to confidentiality. Under this compliance, all the data starting from his name, number, a treatment that he is receiving, payment and the disease that he is suffering from includes. It includes all the data to access, protect it from other patients, hospital staff and even from their relatives if the patient insists.

The member's mother opened the call by saying she had been having trouble with her daughter's insurance. You responded by saying, "mmm hmm." This would be a great opportunity to show empathy by saying, " I'm so sorry to hear that, what trouble have you been having?"